The Pittsburgh Penguins may be reaching the point where Declan Carlile can’t keep taking regular shifts.
What looked like a tidy offseason move has turned into a problem fast. Carlile opened his Penguins stint with a solid couple of games, enough to fuel the idea that Pittsburgh had found a bargain. That feel-good read has faded quickly over the past five games or so, and now the club is staring at a defenseman who has been, by this account, near atrocious.
The Penguins made Carlile one of their biggest offseason bets after moving on from Parker Wotherspoon. The plan was straightforward: slide Carlile into the lineup and let him help steady a pairing with Erik Karlsson. Instead, Pittsburgh now finds itself in a bind, with few obvious answers to replace him.
His recent stretch has been rough in every sense. Carlile has added another goal, giving him the only bright spot in his season so far, but the defensive side of the ledger has fallen apart. He is minus six over the Penguins’ last five games, and the eye test has apparently been even harsher than the numbers.
That’s where the bigger issue comes in for Pittsburgh: there isn’t a clean successor waiting in the wings. Owen Pickering is one of the AHL options, but the organization has seemed reluctant to give him NHL minutes. With new rumors that the team is shopping veterans to create room for younger players, that stance could change.
Still, the message on Carlile is clear. He can’t keep being an every-night defenseman for Pittsburgh this season.
If the Penguins aren’t intentionally steering toward a tank and eventual rebuild, then continuing to roll him out makes little sense. By this point, he doesn’t look like one of their top six defensemen.
The frustration is obvious: “He's completely unplayable right now.”
Pickering should be the first name to get a look if the Penguins want to see whether he can handle the NHL pace. If not him, then Ilya Solovyov or a larger role for Spencer Stastney would at least offer something different from what Carlile is giving them now. For a team already heading through a season full of consistent failures, Carlile has become the biggest weakness on the blue line.
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Penguins Still Waiting On Ben Kindel After Scary Medical Episode
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The Penguins are already preparing to be without Kindel for at least a pair of home games, leaving a temporary hole in their lineup and another reminder of how quickly health can become the priority. A return to practice later in the week is still possible, but the next checkpoint for Pittsburgh will come when the team figures out whether he is ready to rejoin the lineup soon after. [Read more 🡒]